Fables of Time
by goldnote
Summary: The Doctor sweeps yet another person into his adventures, but as deadly, dangerous, and wonderful as they are, can the Doctor continue his travels with the looming consequences of prior actions threatening his plans? 10th Doctor OC-NOT Mary Sue!
1. Before The Beginning

_Okay. First of all, I'm not really taking this story seriously. So if there is a problem with it, I don't really care because I'm just working on it when I have writers block for more important things. Flame it and I'll delete your comment. (Hate to sound rude, I'm really trying not to be, but I'm also just trying to get my point across: if you don't like the story, stop reading it and forget it exists because this isn't a writer who needs "well, you kinda suck" or "write more, but better"). I really do appreciate you stumbling across my little story, though. Don't expect regular updates, sadly. Like I said, this story is my rope to climb over the writer's block, and I don't get writer's block too often to the point where I need to abandon my projects for fanfiction._

_Thanks for stopping by and leave a nice comment if you would like. (smile)_

She thought it was the end when the bus bore down on her, it's great red and white stripes illuminated briefly in startling clarity before the bright headlights blocked out everything in one giant flash that kept growing and growing. Abriel crouched low, covering her face with one arm, wrapping the other around herself and her cat as though to hold together some part for people to find once the bus passed. She had one last selfless thought before the inevitable moment came where metal would rip flesh and cut bone: Abriel hoped her kitten would escape the bus tires.

There was no flashing before her eyes of important moments in her life, no faces, no precious memories hidden deep down in her subconscious to emerge right before her death. Abriel was slightly surprised about this later, when she actually had time to think about it. Time was nearly run out and, even though the screeching of the brakes let anyone nearby know that a vehicle was trying to stop, anyone watching would have known the bus had been going too fast to halt on such short notice. The driver, face twisted in horror and panic, knew that turning would involve potentially hitting another vehicle in an oncoming lane of traffic and could even tip the charter bus carrying children back from a school field trip. So, if no one had watched Abriel, the young woman running into the darkened street after her escapee kitten, she most definitely would have been crushed by a bus.

However, someone was watching and, in a moment of extreme desperation and surge of adrenaline, Abriel was saved. As she hunched down, bracing for the two tons of rubber and metal about to send her off into another existence, Abriel felt a weight hit her, driving her down into the tar and gravel of the road. Rocks hit her face, which smacked painfully on the ground, and she tried, still thinking about her kitten, not to crush the little thing still mewing in her arms. There was a fearsome noise, warm gusts of wind, and a rush of the familiar sound of traffic unfamiliarly close; it came and went in a matter of moments.

Even before she opened her eyes, she knew the bus had passed over her, probably missing her head, shoulders, and feet by mere millimeters. But Abriel also knew all parts were accounted for and, gingerly as to not hurt herself or her captive feline, who was silenced by the sudden shock of a brush with death, she sat up and put a hand to her head. Patting her hair, almost in a reassuring manner, Abriel looked over to find another person sitting there with her.

His face was initially serious, lines of fret and frustration running deep. Clear brown eyes, unclouded by the fear that was suddenly flushing all the blood from Abriel's face, assessed the situation quickly: middle of the road, at twilight, with a foolish girl and a kitten. The bus had slowed after passing over Abriel and her rescuer, and was starting to pull over to the side of the street, just a few houses down. Now that the bright lights were out of her eyes, She had a hard time focusing in the dim light to make out any more features of the person next to her, although she bet it was a man from the way his arm around her shoulders felt. The streetlights, the dull orange bulbs that hadn't been changed in years, were flickering on and there was more traffic on it's way down the road.

Abriel stood up unsteadily, stumbling along after the man, who had gotten up and was now leading her out of the street and to the sidewalk. She heard a voice asking where she lived and she pointed to the small house they stood in front of, the tiny brick building hardly more than a bedroom, kitchen, and a bathroom that doubled as a closet.

"That tiny place?" the man asked, his tone hinting at humor but words insulting. It was all Abriel could afford on her budget as a poor artist. She could only afford heat when she sold a painting, which was rarely, and the cat ate better than she did. Still, Abriel nodded and, getting over her shock at nearly being hit by a bus and then rescued, realized the shouting she was starting to hear was coming from the bus driver, a plump man practically rolling down the sidewalk towards her.

"Miss, are you okay? You came dashing into the street behind the cars and I couldn't stop in time," the driver explained, huffing and puffing to a stop in front of Abriel and the man whose hands where in his pockets, swaying in a satisfied manner. The strange savior was rocking back and forth on his heels, listening to the driver apologize to Abriel and warn her to stay out of the street.

"It's- It's okay, it was foolish of me," Abriel stuttered, petting the top of the cat's head, who had started to squirm now that it realized the danger was over. "I was just trying to save my cat and didn't see you coming."

"No harm done," the strange new man said, still rocking back and forth, practically amused. "Although it's hardly possible to miss an entire bus coming at you, it still happens now and then, but no harm done."

"It's pretty dangerous to be running in front of buses, too, young man," the driver stated, poking a finger at the man, who had stopped his movements and now crossed his arms in defense of himself. "Ya saved someone, but don't make a habit out of it; you could have both been killed."

"Duly noted," the brown-suited man said, waving goodbye to the driver who, after apologizing one last time, walked away back to his bus. "Have a good night! Thanks for the excitement!"

"That wasn't excitement," Abriel said, finding words again. "That was terrible!"

"Excitement as a definition doesn't really mean being pleased with the situation," the man said, starting to amble down the concrete path leading to Abriel's open doorway. "It's just assumed that when someone is excited, they are happy."

"That was rather scientific and pointless," was the reply, none too sarcastic.

"I just saved you life. You're not very happy with me, are you?"

"I'm perfectly happy with you! You rescued me! But I don't think I have a mind at the moment to be defining the English language, thank you very much."

Abriel walked past the man and into the house, hand hesitating on the doorknob. She had never had a male visitor before, despite the near year she had lived there on her own. A little courtesy couldn't hurt, Abriel concluded after a brief moment of silence, and she stepped out of the doorway, pulling the door to it's widest.

"Would you like to come in for some tea?"

"No, thanks," was the unexpected answer. The man smiled and thanked her before turning around on his heel and walking back down the path. He had passed by her little front gardens by the time Abriel found her voice.

"But I wanted to thank you!" she called, disappointed and feeling foolish. "I don't even know your name!"

The man never paused as he called out over his shoulder, "I'm the Doctor."


	2. You Shouldn't Trust Me

Hi. Writer's Block. It has happened. Lucky for you, this means new chapter. Unlucky for me, this means extra time writing my article... Enjoy and review if you would like; thanks to everyone who has reviewed and added this story to their favorites/watch lists. I'm flattered!

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There really was no reason for it to happen, but it did. Things don't need reasons. They need a nice combination of chance, change, and circumstance to take control.

Abriel was asleep in her bed, which was actually a couch. There was bedroom, but it had been converted into Abiel's studio. In place of a bed, which had been given to her brother in return for helping her move in, there were easels and boxes and so many art supplies it would be nearly impossible to organize and label everything if she were to move. Canvases lined walls, white sheets hanging and ready to be painted upon or used as backdrops. In order to keep the rest of the small house clean, the art supplies and art process was not allowed in any other room but that room. There was a kitchen, a bathroom, a living rom and the art room. That was all, but it was all she needed. Living alone didn't require much.

Wrapped in a blue comforter, the thing old and loosing it's stuffing from one corner and some parts speckled with paint (it sometimes got cold in the studio and she was forced to wrap everything but her painting arm), Abriel's chest rose and fell in a steady tempo. The kitten, Smookie, rested on her feet on top of her master's feet, curled up at the end of the couch. There were bars of yellow light streaming in through a gap in the curtains from the streetlights, running across the floor to touch the tip of the cat's tail. There wasn't a car, not a bird, not even an insect. The world, at least as far as Turnaping Street to Dohpal Avenue, was quiet. If anyone had been awake, it would have been remarked upon as unusual. But no one was awake. That was what was most unusual.

That was why, at 1:02 in the morning, a blue telephone box appeared in Abriel's living room.

The cat hissed and it's tail puffed out, unhappy with the blinking light at the top of the mysterious rectangle. Once the blinking stopped and the door opened, Smookie crept across the length of her master's body and nuzzled her under the chin, as if to say, "Wake up, you have a visitor." The visitor in question, brown coat and ruffled hair swaying as he walked, stepped swiftly to the side of the couch after taking a quick look around the room. Softly, as not to startle her, the Doctor covered her mouth and shook her shoulder, muffling the scream he expected. Instead, Abriel opened her eyes, which widened for only a moment, and there was a flicker of recognition that quickly turned into a flame.

"Quiet," he said as Abriel opened her mouth. "Just quiet. Come with me."

"Um-"

"Shh."

"If I'm coming with you," Abriel snapped as soon as the Doctor's hand was off her mouth, "I'm bringing clothes. Where are we going?"

All she got was an eyeroll and approval from the strange man in her living room to get off the couch and to pack up. "Hurry, you don't have much more than a minute. We've got to leave. Now!"

The Doctor didn't even turn around on his way back to the Tardis; he just pointed to dismiss her and kept his back turned as Abriel wrapped herself in her comforter and hurried to the bathroom. She wasn't going to dare mention she was practically in nothing but a pair of old yoga pants. Flipping on the light, she found a tank top laying haphazardly by the sink and, throwing that on, proceeded to stuff a laundry bag with clothes. Pulling random things out of drawers and swiping things out of cupboards, it took Abriel less than a minute to pack. She reappeared in her living room and the Doctor turned around at the sound of her footsteps, which were hardly audible on the carpeted floor. Abriel tossed the comforter on the couch, which was also folded and ready to go, and faced the Doctor.

"What's that?" he asked, pointing almost accusingly at the bag, which hardly came up to Abriel's knee. "That's a little bigger than I expected you to bring along."

"You call this big?" Abriel asked, raising an eyebrow before saying softly "I have a feeling I won't be coming back for a little while."

"How can you possibly know that?" was the answer from the man who was now fidgeting in the doorway, anxious to go. "Now, get in."

"Don't ask me to explain what I can't find words to," Abriel said very seriously before turning and scooping Smookie under her arm. The Doctor silently protested, mouth moving but no sound coming out. The look on Abriel's face, the mingled emotions daring him to take her cat away.

"If I come, the cat comes, too. And the blanket, " she said, adjusting the kitten and the bag so she could still carry her roughly folded comforter.

"Oh, come on, then," the Doctor said, waving his arm and striding through the doors of his flying machine. Abriel followed, not knowing where she was going or what she was about to do, but followed in the strange man's footsteps, not knowing that the Doctor wasn't a man at all.

"You have no reason to ask where we are going? Trust me that much, do you?" the Doctor asked, sarcasm pulling at Abriel's nerves. The young woman dropped her luggage in an appropriate corner and let the kitten out of her arms to run around the control room of the giant flying machine.

"I believe I've already tried to ask and you told me to go pack."

"Well, now that you're packed, you're not going to ask me again?"

As Abriel wandered around the operations panel of the Tardis, the Doctor shut the door of his precious vehicle and watched his new passengers with a keen eye. The orange and yellow lighting, mingled with the blues and purples of control lights, cast shadows made of rainbows across Abriel and her curious kitten. As Abriel turned, she saw the mysterious man looking at her with lowered, concerned eyebrows and a piercing gaze. He looked angry, tired, and very ambitious all in the same moment.

"You're not even going to ask why you're here? Why I chose you? What is going on that involves you to such a point you need-"

"Is this a spaceship?" Abriel asked, interupting him and going back to her task of absorbing every detail of where she was. "How did you just appear in my living room? Does it just appear and disappear? Or does it go so fast normal people can't see it?"

Rubbing his forehead and stepping over the tattered blanket his guest had brought with her, avoiding running over the kitten in his haste to pull Abriel's hand away from one of the mechanisms that would launch the Tardis through the wall of her own house, the Doctor took Abriel away forcibly from the control panel.

"If you would be so kind as to not touch anything, we can get on our way." The Doctor was nearing the end of his hope this girl would be the one he could work with to save her species. As an afterthought, he added, "Are you what humans call a 'blond?'"

Abriel, picking up the kitten and standing far enough back from the Doctor so she wouldn't be accidentally hit by a flailing arm as he zoomed around the control panel and hit buttons and flipped switches, smirked.

"I've gotten that one before," she said without a hint of malice or amusement. "Yes, I have blond hair, but, no, I'm not stupid. And you mean you're not human? You look human..."

"What's with the lack of concern? The yelling, the demands of why you're being taken away in the middle of the night by a man you don't know in a machine that can go anywhere or do anything? Usually that's what all of them do, at least, the ones I've taken away in the middle of the night."

The Doctor froze, his hand hovering over a lever, looking at Abriel, who was petting the purring kittten and looking straight back at him.

"Because you've saved my life before and I don't think you would put it in jepoardy after you went through all that trouble. Demanding answers and panicking over things I don't understand isn't like me. I think you'll explain when you need to, about what is all going on here."

The Doctor's face cleared, his eyebrows unfurling and his mouth widening the slightest bit as his hand slowly dropped to rest on the great green knob in front of him. A blue light rested over his face, distorting his features, clarifying them. His body was relaxed, yet poised for flight, bent forward until he straightened slowly as he asked Abriel a question.

"You trust me? You only met me once, during a moment of mortal peril, and you trust me? You have no idea where you're going or what is happening and you trust me to take you anywhere I want to go?"

Abriel nodded, chin bobbing up and down, wondering what this man had in store for her.

"I trust you."

"You shouldn't have said that," the Doctor said, smiling wide, "You might not trust me after we come up with a plan to save Earth."

And he pulled the lever, sending the Tardis into the deep reaches of space, out of Abriel's living room and into places she had never imagined existed.

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_Yup, well that was the chapter. Needless to say, Abriel will be having more talks with The Doctor, not revolving around her luggage or why she isn't overly worked up about being stolen away in the middle of the night. If I was working on this story as an actual project, I would have gone more in depth about why Abriel doesn't mind this whole "let us save the world" ordeal she is about to be put through and why the Doctor seems so bitter. (Again, I absolutely swear Abriel isn't a Mary Sue. I haven't been getting complaints about her, but let us just hint, I mean, mention that any love interest the Doctor has is going to come from an actual character in the actual series). Okay, thanks for reading and let me know what you think if you would like to... Happy Reading (and waiting) until my next writer's block._


	3. Is There A Plan Yet?

_Thank you, everyone, for the favorites/alerts/reviews so far! I'm flattered. I'm also glad you're enjoying all of this... (smile) Here is another chapter; leave a review if you liked it (or just want something to do) and I'll update next time I am stuck on a writing assignment for all the college classes I have goin' on... (Or just want an excuse to write about The Doctor...)_

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Abriel woke up with a bandage on her face, foggy and unaware of where she was. There were shapes when she opened her eyes, foggy blotches that became clear shadows and then colored shapes. The cat wasn't anywhere to be felt as Abriel groped at the covers of material that definitely was not her blanket. Usually Smookie was where ever her master was sleeping, and her master never slept without her normal comforter. Tenitively, she put a hand to her forehead and pressed what she was sure was a bruise forming.

"Great," Abriel mumbled, trying to swing her legs over the end of the bed but failing. "What the hell happened? Twenty and unable to get out of freakin' bed." She called for the kitten, but he didn't come and Abriel had no idea where the door was to get out of the room she was in.

Looking around, she noticed the walls of the room were just like the walls of the control room, honeycombed and faintly glowing a dim yellow. There was a dresser across from the bed and Abriel could see her reflection in it's mirror, laying on the bed, disjointed and feet hanging over the edge where she had tried to get up. On the dresser were several objects she couldn't make out from so far away. The room itself wasn't spectacular, but large enough to hold not only a full sized dresser and a large bed, but a chair, bed tables, and floor lamps plugged into invisible outlets. It was unusual, unique, strange yet comforting, and Abriel knew she didn't belong there. A sense of emptiness had invaded the room and it seemed as though this wasn't an area many people came to, however many people the strange flying machine hosted still unknown. How she sensed it, Abriel couldn't explain. It seemed as though everything was untouched, unused, almost abandoned.

She called for her cat one last time and managed to swing her legs over the bed on her second attempt, touching her bare feet on the plush rug that had been laid out along the bedside. Patting the bandage and pressing on the wound she must have gotten in the moments after being knocked out, Abriel could feel the wound; cat scraches, deep ones. It wouldn't be the first time Smookie had ripped a few new holes in her. Thinking back to how she could have gotten the scratches, Abriel remembered the Doctor pulling the lever and the equivalent of an earthquake causing the world to shake. She had fallen forwards, still holding Smookie... Abriel guessed the rest explained itself.

A section of the wall pulled away from the rest of the round room and swung back to allow the Doctor to come striding through. Reluctantly, he looked around the room before facing Abriel. His face had turned deadly serious, poetically unhappy during those brief seconds he took to obviously re-live moments both he and the room had seen before. Smacking his lips and clicking his teeth, he grinned foolishly as he came back to the present moment.

"Well, you found yourself quite a concussion there, when I sent the Tardis flying off. My fault, really. I didn't tell you to hold onto anything, you and that creature of yours."

"Where's Smookie?" Abriel asked, closing her eyes and rubbing them. "Is he okay?"

"The cat? Yeah, oh, he's fine. Except, um, he's chosen a pretty bothersome place to hide after his little motion shock."

"Like where?" Abriel asked, genuinely frustrated, not willing to think any more than she had to at the moment. "Is he safe?"

"He's under the control panel," the Doctor answered, scratching the back of his head. "The Tardis can't go anywhere until he gets out or he'll get a nasty little surprise. Or, well, you don't need to know. The sooner you get your cat out of there, the better off we'll all be."

"Did you say Tardis? What the heck is that? And did you say flying? Are we stopped?"

"The Tardis is my ship, what we're flying in right now. Except, we're not flying because your darned cat is risking himself being fried to a crisp by hiding near one of the power supplies. We'll be flying once we get the furry little thing out and get a plan settled."

"You said we were going to save Earth?"

"Yeah, well, we'll do that as soon as you're able to get up and moving. The sooner the better."

The Doctor turned to leave but was stopped by Abriel's last question.

"Whose room is this?"

There was no answer as the Doctor bowed his head and continued out of the room, leaving the door wide open behind him.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

The control room was warm, compared to the cooler temperature of the bedroom. It was also brighter, giving Abriel a migrane within minutes. The headache could have also been caused by either the fact she had been unconcious for about a half hour or because Smookie refused to come out from behind a dangerous looking metal box and a clump of wires.

"Smookie, come out now! You're making me upset," the cat owner told her pet, who only hissed when Abriel tried to grab Smookie's tail.

"How old are you?" the Doctor asked, laughing, "You're talking like a two year old to a creature who doesn't understand half the words you say."

"I'm twenty and it's the only way he relaxes. Smookie is a very picky animal and all these hummings and clickings and beepings of this machine don't help much."

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked, nearly insulted. "The Tardis hasn't ever had a visitor with a real live animal before, at least one who hasn't decided to take up residency in the controls!"

"So you've had pets before?"

"A dog, yeah..."

"You said you never had a real live animal in here, though."

"The dog was a robot."

Abriel raised her eyebrows in surprise and then turned her attention back to the control panel as Smookie crept toward her. She cooed words of praise as the cat sniffed her hand.

"You said Smookie only understands half of what I say?"

"Yeah."

"That means he actually does understand half, right?" Abriel said, hinting at sarcasm.

"Cats don't care what people have to say. Humans don't have anything to give them, really, in their minds except the occassional snack and things that make interesting sounds when you break them. And cats don't like the names humans give them most of the time. I mean, Mittens and Whiskers? How would a human like a first name like Hands or Toenail?"

Abriel ignored the Doctor as the cat finally darted out of the wires, jumping and hissing past Abriel and into the pile of comforter and bag of clothes Abriel still had laying where she had dropped them.

"And Smookie? What sort of name is that?" the Doctor asked, crunching his face and shaking his head. Now that the cat was out of danger, the strange man was back at the control panel, flipping switches and pressing buttons. Abriel wondered where she had hit her head; that railing over there looked like a likely candidate for whatever had knocked her out. It was her own fault for not being able to stand on her own two feet.

"His name was initially Michelangelo," Abriel stated, refering to her cat, "but I used so many terms of endearment with him he started answering to Smookie instead of his original name. Good enough for you?"

"Are you getting short with me?"

The Doctor furrowed his brows, putting a hand on his hip as he leaned on the other hand against something that looked like, if he accidentally pushed the lever down, would cause some sort of catastrophy. Again, he looked displeased with her and Abriel found herself slightly ashamed. He had done nothing but help her so far, even if he hadn't explained to her why he needed to drag her out of her sleep with vague mentions of saving the world.

"Yeah, sorry. I'm a little stressed. First I'm awoken in the middle of the night by a complete stranger and then I'm whisked away in a flying machine, then have a concussion. I'm a little stressed, like I said," Abriel snapped, apologizing a few seconds later. The Doctor shrugged his shoulders.

"It's understandable. But I hope your mood improves because we're going to need you to save someone."

"What is all this talk of saving the Earth, of humans? What is this all about?"

The Doctor sighed and tapped his fingers on the control panel, looking at his sneakers thoughtfully. He suddenly snapped the lever Abriel had been slightly worried about him leaning on upwards and there was a deep rumbing sound coming from the center of the ship, beneth the floor Abriel stood on. The cat growled and burrowed deeper in the laundry bag.

"It's not as easy as it sounds."

"It's not easy to begin with, is it?"

Abriel's incredulous voice seemed a little too shrill, a little too loud for her liking and she took a deep breath. Always in control, always calm, and never surprised. That was what she lived by and, even when swept away by an alien in the night with no promise of being returned to her house, she had always managed to be level headed and secure in her firm belief she was unshakable. Nothing could bother her. Perhaps it was because of the concussion, Abriel noted as she breathed deep. Looking up, she saw the Doctor looking at her with a calculating stare. It was unsettling and Abriel rolled her shoulders, feigning a stretch.

"I should probably explain what is going on so we can get this all done as fast as possible."

"But aren't you risking mistakes by going fast? I mean, it is the Earth you're talking about."

The Doctor kept looking at Abriel as he threw the last switch needed to throw the TARDIS back into motion. Abriel sunk to her knees most ungracefully as she lost her balance yet again. At least she hadn't hit her head this time.

"Maybe you should warn me when you do that?"

The Doctor ignored her for several moments, even though it was obvious he wasn't doing much of anything. Almost as an afterthought to the words running through his mind, the images and plans he had simmering like a heady concoction in that brilliant brain of his, he told Abriel to bring her things to the room she had woken up in.

"That includes the cat," he stated. The Doctor was none too fond of the still hissing creature.


End file.
